Anyone birth twins naturally

10-28-2008, 08:54 PM

Hi,
I am due with my twins in March and am hoping for a vaginal, natural birth. We had no problems with my sons birth and I have an OB who is on board my with my birthing plan. I'm still a little nervous since its two! I'm having a hard time finding good information on twin births. Anyone have any good books on birthing twins to help me get educated on the issue so I know what are serious concerns when the time comes and what are dr.'s overreacting (if that makes any sense...).

I haven't personally, but a woman in our group gave birth to two boys naturally at home with a midwife only 6 mo ago. It was her first children. I will ask her if she has any books or anything she can share. It can be done!

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Hi JellyBean. I planned to have my twins naturally, and did a lot of research on the subject. Unfortunately, I was faced with an emergency c-section due to fetal distress. One of the boys wasn't breathing at delivery, so it was good they intervened when they did. But overall, most of my research said it was reasonably safe. My boys were monochorionic, so there was some risk of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome popping up. Besides that, in general, the risk with delivering twins is more with the second baby, not the first. You need to be mentally prepared that you could vaginally deliver the first, and then need an emergency c-section for the second. It isn't common, but it isn't extremely rare either. And if something goes wrong, it will happen very quickly. They only have a few minutes to take the baby once he starts showing distress.

The most risky presentation is if the first baby is breech and the second baby is vertex. In this presentation, the babies necks could get stuck on each other and it is very dangerous. This is the only presentation that my doctor would not deliver vaginally.

One of the big decisions you will make is how much monitoring you will be comfortable with, especially for the second baby. Because the delivery of the first can cause distress on the second, many practitioners want to monitor the 2nd baby by ultrasound during delivery of the 1st, which limits the birthing positions. But even for the 1st baby, because of the slightly increased risks, some practitioners want to do internal monitoring, which can restrict your ability to move around.

My best advice is to find a doula who has been present at other natural multiple births.

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Hey Jellybean!
I have 6 month old fraternal twins boys born completely naturally. My OB's partners kept telling me that I would have to have a Csection, but she said I could do whatever I was comfortable with as long as there were no problems. One of her partners was actually there for the delivery and he kept saying over and over that it was ok to have a Csection, but I refused as all was well with the boys. They were 5 weeks early. My water broke naturally and I was having contractions. Baby A was vertex and B was almost. Once A came out, B changed to vertex and I had an ideal delievery of both, 23 minutes apart. I didn't have any drugs at all and the pediatrian said that it was a good thing because the boys were so tired after delivery that it would have been more strenuous on them. I know that not everyone can help it, but I am glad that I could. I didn't even take motrin after birth bc I wanted them to be as strong as possible. B spent a week in NICU due to premature lung disease. They are both perfect and fat now! They were my first btw! GL!

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Our dear friend and Bradley Instructor did! The babies were born at home in the water with several midwives on hand. She will be doing a documentary on this. Her name is Danielle Centeno and her birth story and photos can be seen on our blog at www.bellysprout.com. It was an amazing birth and we were so proud of Danielle!

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I delivered my twins vaginally but with an epidural just in case baby b was breech or had to be born via c-section. In retrospect I may not have chosen the epidural but my pregnancy was considered quite high risk because my girls are monozygotic and monochorionic but fortunately diamniotic. I will write more about these later.

If your twins are not sharing a placenta and don't have size discordance and both are vertex (head first) then natural, vaginal delivery should be no problem. If baby a is vertex but baby b is not you can still deliver vaginally, make sure your doctor is comfortable with breech delivery and has done them in the past. Baby b might turn after baby a is born. The reason I had the epidural was in case we had to go to c-section or have a breech delivery for baby b - if you have to have an emergency c-section for baby b and you already have an epidural it's easier for the doctors to administer the anesthesia and you get to stay awake. Otherwise they have to give you a general anesthetic. I will write more and provide you with evidence based links later today.

Erin

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I did, but not on purpose! I had the epi, but it was too shallow and I dilated from 2 to 9 in like 20mins so I had them vaginally and naturally. If I knew then what I know now I would not have gotten the epi at all. They were 2 wks early and spent no time in the nicu. I am still nursing them at 2 and a half.

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My ODS was done by 2. We went to San Fran when he was 2 and he literally walked he whole time rather than ride in the sling or stroller. My feet were about to fall off, so that kid walked a long way! He rode in the sling a few times when he was closer to 3 and jealous that his baby brother got to ride, but he determined very quickly that this was "boring" so never lasted more than 2 minutes

My 2nd son walked at 9mos and by 12-18 mos was done with the sling . He just wanted to move and be on his own! He has been slung more closer to 3. I went to the store a few times with him on my back and done some chores with him strapped on. He seems to really need that closeness now that he's not the youngest anymore. However, more times than not no sooner have I finished tying him on and he decides he wants to go do something "fun.